Krebs on Security

In-depth security news and investigation

Posts Tagged: Core Security

Let’s get this out of the way up front: Having “2016 election” in the headline above is probably the only reason anyone might read this story today. It remains unclear whether Republicans and Democrats can patch things up after a bruising and divisive election, but thanks to a special Election Day Patch Tuesday hundreds of millions of Adobe and Microsoft users have some more immediate patching to do.

As the eyes of the world stayed glued to screens following the U.S. presidential election through the night, Microsoft and Adobe were busy churning out a large number of new security updates for Windows, MS Office, Flash Player and other software. If you use Flash Player or Microsoft products, please take a deep breath and read on.

Regularly scheduled on the second Tuesday of each month, this month’s “Patch Tuesday” fell squarely on Election Day in the United States and included 14 patch bundles. Those patches fixed a total of 68 unique security flaws in Windows and related software.

Six of the 14 patches carry Microsoft’s most’s-dire “critical” label, meaning they fix bugs that malware or miscreants could use to remotely compromise vulnerable PCs without any help from users apart from maybe visiting a hacked or malicious Web site.

Microsoft says two of the software flaws addressed this week are already being exploited in active attacks. It also warned that three of the software vulnerabilities were publicly detailed prior to the release of these fixes – potentially giving attackers a head start in figuring out how to exploit the bugs.

Apple recently released a massive update to address at least 130 security vulnerabilities in Mac OS X systems, including a monster patch that fixes 55 flaws in Adobe Flash Player.

The seventh major update to OS X this year includes a fix that stems from a vulnerability Apple patched in the iPhone earlier this year but apparently never scrubbed on OS X. According to security vendor Core Security — which said it released details about the flaw ahead of Apple’s advisory after waiting nearly three months for Apple to fix it — the vulnerability is a variation of the flaw exposed this summer that helped iPhone users jailbreak devices running iOS4. Apple fixed that bug in the iPhone shortly after the exploit was released, but until last week the flaw remained a weak spot in OS X 10.5/Leopard systems, Core said.